Australiasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

It is with sadness that we report the death of Graham Sorell on 19 October 2009 following a twelve month battle with cancer.

Graham was an active member of the ACPSEM where he served on branch committees and as CPD Coordinator.  He will be remembered by his many colleagues throughout Australia and New Zealand as a brilliant teacher of medical physics, for his willingness to provide assistance and encouragement whenever required, and for his keen, almost wicked, sense of humour.

He is survived by his wife Jenny, son Matthew, daughter Ilona and three grand-children.

For more details of Graham's professional life please read page 261 of the December 2009 edition of the APESM Journal.

ACPSEM is committed to making it easier for its members to keep up to date with the latest announcements, education opportunities and job information. With this in mind ACPSEM can now be found on both Facebook and Twitter. This allows members to network with each other, share experiences on the discussion boards and upload photos and video. Please take a moment have a look at these new ways to stay connected and feel free to contribute to our online community.

Click here to join us on Facebook

Click here to follow us on Twitter

With the implementation of the Training Education Accreditation Program (TEAP) for newly employed medical physicists in radiotherapy and the on-going assessment for accreditation of existing staff, the number of candidates examined for accreditation has increased significantly. The Radiation Oncology Accreditation Panel (ROAP) is seeking to appoint as many as possible new trainee examiners over the next two years.

Further information on this call for expression of interest can be obtained through the following link; EOI ROAP Jan10

Held on the 10th November 2009 in Canberra, the ACPSEM AGM saw  50 keen members gather to hear the latest news of the College, which included the announcement of two new Fellows, one new Life member, and one member being given a Distinguished Service Award  for contributions to the College and to professions the College represents.

The current President, Tomas Kron, presented an ACPSEM Distinguished Service Award to Ian Smith, for his significant contribution to the College over many years, in the roles of Hon Treasurer, Membership Board member and Conference convenor.

Tomas also announced that Alun Beddoe had been awarded Life Membership of the ACPSEM.

The Hon Secretary, John Coles,  reported that the various prizes and awards offered by the College are now funded by the ACPSEM Foundation. The Boyce Worthley Young Achiever Award received no nominations during 2009. The Richard Bates Travel Scholarship and Award was awarded to Ben Khoo, who plans to further his studies into bone mineral density as derived from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanners.  The winner of the Kenneth Clarke (Journal) Award, for the best paper published in Vol 31,  was Sergei Zavgorodni for the paper “Application of the equivalent uniform stochastic dose (EUSD) to TCP calculations incorporating dose uncertainty and fractionation effects”.
A single Branch Travel Grant was awarded to Tom Grieg, Dept Medical Technology & Physics, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Perth.

The meeting attendees were also reminded that Natalka Suchowerska, Annette Haworth and Christian Langton had been awarded Fellow status during the year.

A complete copy of the AGM minutes can be accessed via the following link. AGM Minutes 2009

Tomas Kron finishes his term as President at the end of the year and his presentation to the meeting reflected on success over the past year as well as the number of new initiatives that are coming to fruition over the next few years.  For an insight to his thoughts please reference this PowerPoint  presentation AGM09 President's Report

For those attending the RANZCR/AIR/FRO/ACPSEM Combined Scientific Meeting next week (Brisbane, 22nd-25th October, 2009), don’t miss the session entitled, “Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia” from 10:30-12:30 on Friday 23rd October. The program for the session is as follows:

Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia: An Overview; Graeme Morgan
IAEA activities in the development of clinical medical physicist training for Radiation Oncology in South East Asia; Donald McLean
Educational and Clinical Training of Medical Physicists in Vietnam; Brian Thomas
ACPSEM Asia Pacific Special Interest Group; Tomas Kron and Catherine Lawford
Up and Running: Radiotherapy Commissioning in Lae, Papua New Guinea; Simon Downes
Supporting Radiotherapy in SE Asia – Training the Trainers; Mary Coffey
Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia: Radiation Therapy Technologist (RTT) Training in Vietnam; Jennifer Cox
Back to the Future: Radiation Therapy in Papua New Guinea – A Radiation Therapists Prospective; Christopher Walsh
Distance Learning in the Applied Sciences of Oncology; Michael Barton
Discussion

 (15th October, 2009)

For those who missed it in late 2008, Tomas Kron et al. published a paper entitled, “Medical physics aspects of cancer care in the Asia Pacific Region”. The paper reports on a questionnaire sent out to 20 medical physics departments in the region, to determine the education, role and status of medical physicists in the Asia-Pacific region. The results provide useful data for workforce planning and training development for medical physicists in the region. The paper is published in a special focus issue of the freely available Biomedical Imaging and Intervention Journal, entitled “Frontiers of Cancer Care in Asia-Pacific Region”.

See T Kron et al. Biomed Imaging Interv J 2008; 4(3):e33

(16th August, 2009)

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome…

Welcome to the new webpage of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine. It has been a long time coming and the process has highlighted the increasing complexity of our organization with branches, specialties, committees, TEAP, CPD, not to mention all the
databases of members, accreditations and registrations. There is a need for public access to some information and members access to more.

I would like to invite you to explore the page for yourself and please provide us with feedback at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   Nothing is perfect. The webpage ain’t cabaret, but hopefully will be informative, useful and possibly even a bit entertaining.

Many happy returns

Tomas Kron

President ACPSEM 

Support for People Living with Cancer

From July 1 2009people living with cancer in Australia will be better able to access a range of treatments, medicines and support. The Hon. Nicola Roxon MP, the Australian Minister for Health and Ageing, announced today that a new Medicare rebate was available for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans. She also announce better access to the drug bevacizumab, new PET services and over $6 million (over three years) to support the training of radiation oncology medical physicist registrars. Medical physics is a specialised field and these professionals are responsible for the set up, maintenance and calibration of linear accelerators, the machines used to provide radiation treatment for cancer patients. One aspect of this funding is to enable the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) to provide oncology centres with education resources and conduct extra accreditation examinations. For more details see the full press release as follows: Support for People with Cancer full article (PDF)

It is with great pleasure that the ACPSEM Council announces that Associate Professor Natalka Suchowerska has been admitted as a Fellow of the College.  This makes Natalka the first female Fellow for the ACPSEM.  Well Done Natalka!

Natalka joined the College as an Associate Member in 1984 and has been an Ordinary Member since 2002.  She has been an Associate Professor in the School of Physics, University of Sydney since 2003.  Her contributions to the ACPSEM include NSW Branch Chair (1999-2001), ACPSEM Education Committee Chair (2001- 2003) and Chair of the Accreditation Working Party (1998-2001).

Ed Scull, ACPSEM member for more than 30 years and President from 1991 to 1993 has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division for service to biomedical engineering and associated professional associations.

Congratulations, Edward R Scull, OAM

ACPSEM branches are coordinating the collection of suitable medical physics and biomedical engineering text books for the University of Indonesia.  If anyone can help with unwanted, but still useful, text books then please contact your local branch or Brian Thomas at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  The ACPSEM office will assist with postal/freight  fees. See Textbooks request for more information.

(28th May, 2009)

Dear Members,

I am very pleased to announce that the following people have recently gained accreditation in Nuclear Medicine Physics.

Graeme O’Keefe , Dept Of Nuclear Medicine and Centre for PET, Austin Hospital VIC
Seu Seong Som, Dept of Nuclear Medicine and PET, Liverpool Hospital NSW
Chithradevi Sathiakuma, Dept of Nuclear Medicine and PET, Liverpool Hospital NSW

My congratulations to these three people and to the team behind the Nuclear Medicine Physics accreditation program for these achievements.

All the best,

Sean Geoghegan
________________________________________________________________
Sean Geoghegan, PhD                Chair Professional Standards Board
Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to inform members that the following candidate has been awarded with Accreditation in Radiotherapy Equipment Commissioning and Quality Assurance:

Mr Robert Chambers of the Medical Physics Dept, Cancer Care Centre, St George Hospital NSW.

I am also delighted to announce that the following candidates have passed their final examination requirements for Accreditation in Radiation Oncology Medical Physics:

Ms Alison Chapman of the Dept Radiation Oncology, Medical Physics, Andrew Love Cancer Centre, Victoria, and
Mr Michael Currie of the Dept Radiation Oncology, Medical Physics, Wollongong Hospital, NSW.

Congratulations to Robert Chambers, Alison Chapman and Michael Currie on their successes.
Sean Geoghegan
________________________________________________________________
Sean Geoghegan, PhD Chair Professional Standards Board
Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

This is what some shady fellows got up to at the EPSM-ABEC conference in Christchurch. Meetings, meetings, meetings... talking, networking and sharing professional issues with other members.

Please find attached an Expressions of Interest request for individuals to become a member of the Allied Health Clinical Placement Scholarship Scheme (AHCPSS) Assessment Panel and the Appeals Panel.

The John Black Prize

The Robert Stanford Award

Travel Grant

Dear Colleagues, I'd like to bring to your attention the following award which has recently been announced - The Roberts Prize For Best Paper In Physics In Medicine and Biology In 2007, Cellular response to modulated radiation fields: E. Claridge Mackonis, N. Suchowerska, M. Zhang, M. Ebert, D. R. McKenzie, M. Jackson

Dear colleagues, it is my very great pleasure to announce that the ACPSEM Professional Standards Board has awarded ACPSEM Accreditation in Radiation Oncology Medical Physics to: Mr Craig Norvill of the Department of Radiation Oncology, Prince of Wales Hospital, NSW